Facebook has informed its users that it will be discontinuing location-based features such as Nearby Friends, Weather Alerts. They will no longer be available after May 31, 2022.
Introduced in 2014, Nearby Friends lets you and your friends share your locations with each other. When enabled, you’ll be notified when friends are nearby, so you can contact them and meet up. You can also see where your friends are and when they are traveling.
Though no reason has been given for this development, the Meta company states that all information related to these features will be deleted from Facebook’s servers.
According to a 9to5Mac report, users have been getting a notification in the Facebook app for iOS and Android about the end of Nearby Friends. At the same time, Facebook also says that Time Alerts, Location History, and Background Location are also “going away soon.”
“Nearby Friends and Weather alerts will no longer be available after May 31, 2022. Information you shared that was used for these experiences, including Location History and Background Location, will stop being collected after May 31, 2022, even if you have previously enabled them.”
The company adds that users can access and download their location history until August 1, 202. After this date, any location history or background location information previously shared will be deleted.
Facebook says it will otherwise continue collecting location information for other experiences as described in its data Policy.
A couple of days ago, Facebook announced that it was shutting down its podcast business just one year after launching the service
